What is the difference between ethnic identity and national identity?

After the independence, most Malays continued to live in rural areas, working as farmers, fishermen or rubber smallholders, while the ethnic-Chinese mostly resided in urban areas, engaging in trade and commerce, while ethnic-Indians were mainly rubber estate workers or professionals. Even people belonging to the same class, as working-class Chinese and Malays, did not have a common political representation as class in itself. This established a vertical ethnic connection among the communities, in which their members felt closer to people from the same ethnie than people from the same social class. (Yeoh, 2008)

The Bumiputra is the official collective term that groups together Malay, as well as the aboriginals of Sabah and Sarawak after the two regions formed Malaysia. It was established as an administrative category after the racial riots of 1969. That year, the frustration felt by the Malays for the harsh economic background, which saw the ethnic-Chinese occupying positions of power in the country’s economy, sparked violence in the “13th of May incident”. As a result, the government adopted the New Economic Policy (NEP), a series of affirmative action strategies meant to put “Malay first”. (Kheng, 2002) The Alliance was replaced by the National Front and the Constitution was amended to include citizenship, Malay as national language and Islam as official religion, as well as Bumiputra special rights. Interethnic class collaboration took the form of an informal economic collaboration that does not extend to social and political relationships. All Malays are legally defined as Muslims, and are part of the Bumiputra. Religious boundaries have played an important role in perpetuating practices of endogamy, which ensures maintaining ...

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...de. National identity being mostly associated with the allegiance of one individual to his or her homeland, intended as the nation-state, ethnic identity can transcend the nation and give people a sense of belonging to a common ancestry and kinship narrative. Southeast Asia is comprised of many nationalities and even more ethnic groups, and states have sometimes taken this diversity to their advantage by shaping policies which tend to crystallize ethnic identity, turning it into a governmental matter. Thus, in both Singapore and Malaysia ethnic diversity has been reduced to three main groups, which engage differently with the nation. In Singapore an official multiculturalism policy has de facto strengthened national identity among its members, while in Malaysia state policies favouring the majority ethnie have turned class division into a matter of ethnic identity.